Predictably, I don't own Ranma ½, Final Fantasy 7, or any characters from them. I'm just mugging them for their wallets in the middle of the night. Thanks to Mitchell, monduthefat, TerraEpon, holyknight and crystlshake over at Fukuficsfor C&C, and proofreading.
Dear Tifa.
I have no way of knowing if this letter will reach you. I have no way of even knowing if you still live; you were badly wounded when we last saw each other. You were bleeding so badly, and I wonder if the doctor was able to heal you.
But if you are reading this, then you must be alive. I hope that you still practice, my student. With this letter, there are training manuals, scrolls, and videos. They are my legacy, and I hope that you shall carry them forward into the next generation. No one else can.
When we trained together, you asked many questions about me. Where was I born? Did I have a wife? Who taught me so well? What was my real name? You never gave up, I remember. It was that determination that made me so sure that you, above all others, could be my heir. But now, I am most certainly dead. Let this letter answer those questions in my stead.
It all started when I was a child. My father was a great martial artist, and he took me on a training trip at a young age. We traveled together for years, all over the world. We learned from other masters along the way, and we trained in exotic locations. The training was brutal. Many would have died from it- it was a miracle that I didn't.
I didn't escape unharmed by the training, however. I had a cat phobia so deep that the mere presence of one banished my sanity. It was rough. I knew nothing of the civilized world and was incompetent at school. I had the emotional maturity of a boy four years my junior, and an ego the size of Midgar.
I had lived as a vagabond with my father for ten years before we settled down. It was his intention to marry me to the daughter of his friend, to join the two branches of Anything-Goes martial arts. I protested with great enthusiasm and little skill; as did the youngest daughter. We were engaged less than an hour after meeting.
We were fairly unhappy with the arrangement. She had some problems with my attitude, and our first meeting didn't help matters. My rudeness kept me from being honest with her, and for a long time we showed each other only our worst sides. Her name was Akane Tendo.
Eventually, we grew close, despite all life threw at us. As two of the greatest martial artists in the world, we drew challengers like Mako draws Shinra. Everything tried to keep us apart, and it often seemed like every step forward in our relationship was taken though wet concrete, with a car pulling us back. It was a long and hard courtship, but there was improvement.
It was less than a week after I proclaimed my love for her that the worst struck. It was the Grandmaster of Anything-Goes, a man so evil that his mere presence made women fear and tremble. He didn't like me; I didn't like him. Eventually, he decided to get rid of me, in favor of an apprentice more like himself. He had some kind of magical artifact- he called it the Naban Mirror.
It formed a portal, and sucked me through. I found my self in the wild, all alone. This was inconvenient, but hardly horrible. It took me a week to find my way to a road, and a further month to find a town. I found myself in Nibelhiem. I had never heard of it before.
I made phone calls, I looked up maps, I looked in history books. All signs pointed to one thing- this wasn't my world.
I can almost feel your disbelief at reading those words, my dear student, but they are true. I would advise you to verify my claims, but everyone who could do so is dead. Old age.
This world was very different from my own. We had something like mako, only healthier. We had much fewer monsters as well. I had seen less than a dozen on my world, and that was an abnormally high number. Most people didn't believe that monsters existed.
We also had no materia on our world. I was much impressed by it, but scorned the use of it. I found that it weakened the user physically, and I was too focused in the martial arts to make that trade off.
I left the people of Nibelhiem after a month. I set off, determined to find my way back home, back to my fiancée. I toured the cities of the world, and found little. My search reviled nothing.
It was at Junon , I believe, that I made my name. Back then it was a quickly growing military outpost, to counter the Wutai threat. I was passing through, when I found a monster harassing the builders and townsfolk. It was a difficult foe- it's strength was in its electric attacks, and we were knee-deep in water.
When it finally fell, the people were ecstatic. They had gathered to watch the fight, and started calling me Zangan, after the monster I had slain. I tried to protest, but despite my efforts they persisted in calling me by that wretched name.
I resumed my travels of the world, but word of me had spread. Soon everyone I met recognized me as Zangan, and the name has stuck to me for all these years.
It was about ten years before you were born, I think, that I first tried venturing north. I had heard things about it, and it had truly strange ambient chi. It all flowed towards the North Pole.
My journey there was a hard one, but worth it. I found a forgotten city. It was a thing of beauty, houses made from giant seashells. I dawdled there, before venturing onwards.
The north was cold, and I traveled for weeks with little protection from the elements. I found a village there, and collapsed in the inn. It took many days for me to recover, and I met a lot of interesting people.
The most interesting of them all was a man by the name of Gast. He was researching the Cetra, the Ancients. He claimed to have found something in the northern crater, something that might have been an Ancient. He was having second thoughts about his discovery, and asked me to see what I could find in the depths of the crater. I was going that way anyway, so I agreed.
The caves that lead to the northern crater were hard, but I rid myself of a curse that had haunted me since my teens. I will not relate what it was, but should you ever find a woman who lives in the caves, relishing the cold, I was responsible for her creation.
The heart of the crater contained five monsters unlike any I had ever seen. Their chi felt like that of the ground beneath our feet, only corrupted. They were more than monsters, they were living weapons. I called them Emerald, Ruby, Ultima, Diamond and Sapphire. I charge you, my student, to make sure that those monstrosities never awaken. It would be the end of everything, I fear.
There was something else there. A woman. She was frozen solid, but had a faint aura. I removed her from the ice, and defrosted her. We made it back down the mountain, to the village.
The woman had lost her memory, but it seemed like she might have been an ancient. I left her with Gast, who had something of a crush on her, but was a good man.
I left the north, a little wiser, but still without my way home. I traveled to cosmo canyon, and met the last of a wise species. His name was Nanaki, and I liked him a lot. I learned much from his grandfather, and went to a place I learned about from him: the Temple of the Ancients.
I was able to get in via a key that I'd found years previously, at an archeology dig. I entered, and found much that was strange, but little that would help me get home.
Next, I returned to Nibelhiem. I saw the people who had helped me when I first arrived in this world. They didn't recognize me- most of them were old and senile. It was then that the true price of being a master of martial arts hit me- the longetivity. I had been in this world over 60 years, placing my age at about 80, and yet I had the features of a man in his late thirties.
I had never paid much attention to the passing of time, and had always remained faithful to Akane. That night, I was so consumed by sadness that I met a woman, and stayed that night at her place.
The next morning, I realized what I had done. I apologized to Linda Strife, and left. I resumed my travels, but this time I had a different goal. Akane was probably dead of old age, and that would leave me the last practitionerof Anything-Goes. I searched the world for an heir for eight years.
Unsuccessful in my search, I eventually found my way back to Nibelhiem, and met you. You were lying unconscious, having tried to find your way over the mountains. While the adults of the village commented on your stupidity and attributed your survival to luck, I saw something deeper. The strength of will you had found, to get so far with no materia, weapons, or training.
When you woke up, I offered my services to your parents as a trainer, to help you regain use of your muscles. Under the excuse of rehabilitation, I gave you a start in martial arts. When I told you to do those exercises every day and left, I was testing you. I returned a month later, and found you still at work doing exactly as I had instructed. That was when I decided to train you for real.
I had other students, in other towns, but you were by far the brightest. You absorbed all I could teach like a sponge, and your heart was too pure to misuse your teachings. I was so proud to have you as my student.
During my training of you, Linda Strife came to visit me. She brought news- I had a son. His name was Cloud.
She had told him that his father was dead, and I was glad she did so. I am not Father material, I learned too much from my own father. I gave her a small fortune, and wished her well. She understood, thankfully.
Even in Nibelhiem we got rumors from abroad. I heard tales of a man called Sephiroth , a man who could not be defeated. I left Nibelhiem to try my skills against him.
I have never been lucky, and never was my luck worse. While I was gone, Sephiroth and Cloud, along with a couple of other Shinra men, came to Nibelhiem. I arrived late, and never got a chance to fight Sephiroth . Cloud was in the village, in a blue uniform. He hadn't revealed himself to the town, but I could recognize that Chi anywhere. He had a warriors sprit, just like his father.
Not one day after I arrived, I awoke to find the town burning. Many were dead, and it was by Sephiroth 's hand. I helped as many of the townsfolk as I could, but most died despite my efforts. Cloud and a Soldier called Zack helped me. When all was reviled to be hopeless, we followed Sephiroth , for revenge.
You had gotten there before us. You tried to stop him, but he cut you so deep you almost fell in half. Zack ran after Sephiroth , and came flying out a moment later, dying. Cloud took up his sword and followed him in. I cant be sure, as I was busy trying to keep you alive, but I think Sephiroth was so distracted that Cloud managed to stab him deeply. Sephiroth wounded Cloud in return.
I picked you up, and carried you out. I watched behind me as Sephiroth emerged with a head, still alive without any body. It was Sephiroth 's father, I think, from the chi. Cloud tried to stop him again, and got impaled upon Sephiroth 's sword. He managed to throw Sephiroth over the edge, into the mako pit, before passing out.
You were my main concern though. Shinra arrived to take care of Cloud and Zack, and I left with you. I never trusted Shinra, so I took you to a doctor I trusted in Midgar. I paid him well, and left.
I went to Cosmo Canyon, and spoke to the elders there. They researched, and discovered that Sephiroth, who I knew was too strong to be dead, had probably drifted through the lifestream to the Northern Crater. I decided to go there, to fight him.
On my way, I stopped in at Nibelhiem. The whole town had been rebuilt! It was identical to how it had been before it burned down. Every building, every shop! But no one admitted to remembering the fire. I believe it was a Shinra plot, although I cannot say why. There were also strange men, muttering about reunion, wearing black cloaks. Their chi is identical to Sephiroth's, but far weaker. I don't know what they are.
And that is where my story comes to a close. I am writing this story at Nibelhiem, and then I will place it in the piano, along with my training manuals. I could have sent it by mail, but this is safer. My techniques are too dangerous to let fall into the wrong hands. So I have hidden it here in this piano, in the replica of your old house, encoded to that song you wrote for me.
I will leave here once I am finished, and head for the Northen Crater. I must fight Sephiroth. I do not expect to win. Or survive. But it is the duty of a marital artist, and perhaps I can do enough lasting damage to weaken him enough for the next person who wants to fight him.
You don't have to fight him. I can't help but think that Cloud will be the one to kill him, so you don't have to risk your life to do so. But I know you, know your heart. You will fight him, I fear. At least wait until you have mastered all the moves written here. That will give you a better chance.
Good bye, my student. It was an honor to know you, and an even greater honor to teach you. Do not cry for me, as I leave this world with a happy heart. I've lived upon this world too long, and I will finally see my Akane again.
Ranma Saotome,
aka Zangan
I just couldn't help but write this. I could have made it a full-length story, but between Hellfire Days and Wild Knights, and a new story that I've mentioned at Fukufics, I just don't have the time. Anyone who wants to make this a full story has my blessing- just give me a link so I can read it.